The award named for a couple with a 50-plus year history in pregnancy help advocacy has its first recipients.
The Ohio Christian Education Network (OCEN) has implemented the first steps toward intentionally countering a culture of death by honoring schools that utilize curriculum and activities to teach a pro-life ethic.
“We are delighted to recognize the leadership of Mike and Peggy Hartshorn in the pro-life movement by announcing the five schools that are recipients of the inaugural Hartshorn Dignity of Life Award,” Troy McIntosh, executive director of OCEN told Pregnancy Help News.
The Hartshorn Dignity of Life Award, established in 2024, recognizes OCEN member schools that fulfilled requirements demonstrating the efforts of these schools to teach pro-life principles.
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The OCEN established the award to encourage its member schools to incorporate pro-life values into their curriculum.
OCEN is a program of Center for Christian Virtue (CCV), Ohio’s largest Christian policy organization. It has grown quickly since launching in 2018 with 204 member schools.
The Hartshorns have led efforts for decades to advocate for the unborn and inspired nationwide and international initiatives to help women choose life amid a culture of death. Various organizations have celebrated their lengthy legacy of pro-life advocacy. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recognized Peggy with its People of Life Award and the Florida Family Policy Council which named her as one of the 50 Greatest Pro-Life Leaders of the Past 50 Years in its Legacy of Life Book.
The Hartshorns became active in pro-life work after when Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973. In 1975 they began housing pregnant girls in their home and they later founded the first pregnancy help center and 24-hour hotline in Columbus, Ohio, in 1981. The pregnancy help center would later become Pregnancy Decision Health Centers (PDHC).
In 1986 they became involved in Heartbeat International where Peggy Hartshorn was president for 23 years.
Heartbeat is the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. and globally.
Mike Hartshorn continued to serve on the board of PDHC. He has been a private practice attorney beginning in 1972 and aided nearly 100 women with adoption plans in the 1970s-90s. He was also a member of Heartbeat International’s Foundational Board.
The Hartshorn Dignity of Life Award incentivizes schools to follow a path of increasing curriculum and programming which ultimately will educate and inspire future pro-life leadership among their respective student bodies.
“Mike and Peggy Hartshorn have shown the impact you can have when you stand up for the vulnerable,” said Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue.
“Carrying on their life-saving legacy is the responsibility of the next generation. These schools and their students are showing that the future of the pro-life movement is bright,” Baer said.
Peggy Hartshorn remarked on the influence of faith-based education in instilling values in young people.
“Mike and I were educated in faith-based schools from first grade through college,” Hartshorn said. “So, we know from experience the profound impact our teachers and curriculum had in forming the deep respect we hold for the dignity of each person made in the image and likeness of God.”
“We hope the award is an incentive for every one of the faith-based schools in Ohio to adopt specific pro-life activities and curricula to raise up the next pro-life generation,” she added.
It was a study of the voting decisions made by the faith community that first led to the creation of this award. This included that 55% of Catholic and 31% of Evangelical school alumni voted in favor of Ohio’s Issue 1 in 2023, the amendment that legalized abortion on demand up until birth in the state.
“We cannot assume that young people growing up in a Christian community will form a pro-life ethic on their own,” McIntosh said. “It is incumbent on Christian schools to teach its students why a respect for the dignity of life is a vital component of a Christian worldview.”
This first year the Hartshorn Dignity of Life Award has one silver level and five bronze level recipients. The hope is to increase the number of awardees in the future and for incumbent winners to raise their level.
Bronze level recipients for 2025 include Heritage Christian School of Canton, Grove City Christian School, Cincinnati Christian School, and Ross County Christian Academy of Chillicothe.
The 2025 Hartshorn Dignity of Life School of the Year and silver level recipient is Calvary Christian School of Bellefontaine.
Among the qualifying activities the Calvary Christian School held this year were the Ohio March for Life in Columbus, a Biblically themed pro-life chapel, a student-led service day at a local pregnancy center, helping the pregnancy center with its annual gala, and adopting a pro-life curriculum to be implemented for the coming school year.
Along with a plaque the school received a $1,000 award to assist with future pro-life projects.
“These schools have each taken the mantle of leadership by intentionally making a pro-life ethic an essential component of their curriculum. We look forward to more schools following this lead in future years,” McIntosh said.
Peggy Hartshorn is encouraged by the results so far.
“We are thrilled that five schools in Ohio are the first recipients of the Dignity of Life Award,” she said. “That means that hundreds of students are being even more intentionally formed to love and respect God’s plan for each member of the human family, including the smallest and most vulnerable members in the womb!”
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Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
